The Debt Ceiling is Coming Sooner Rather Than Later

Bipartisan observers have estimated that the federal government would reach the debt ceiling in the late third or fourth quarter of this year and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin himself has warned that they could no longer use "extraordinary measures" to extend the deadline any further than that.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday urged Congress to raise the U.S. debt ceiling as soon as possible, saying the U.S. government was expected to exhaust its borrowing authority around late summer.

“I haven’t given an exact date, but I would say it’s late summer,” Mnuchin told a hearing of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, when asked about the timing of the potential crisis.

When Congress raised the debt ceiling earlier this year, Trump vowed that hey would not do so again without significant spending changes, but I don't necessarily expect he will pick a fight this summer.

I think we should all expect to see Trump make demands, but I do not believe his demands should be taken seriously.

After all, defaulting on the national debt would be really bad news for Trump himself who has a significant amount of financial leverage hanging over his head.

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Sooner or later, Donald Trump will decide he has to be decisive! and not climb down from his demands. My fear is that he will choose the debt ceiling to take a stand.

From the point of view of an ignoramus like Trump, it’s a winner: the Rs are constantly honking on about the national debt (so it must be important) and The Base is permanently energized on the subject (so it must be electoral gold).

I guarantee he doesn’t see any correlation between the national debt and his personal finances.

Here’s hoping someone in the White House jingles their keys and distracts Trump before he does something stupid and destructive.

–alopecia

Draxiar

They keep touching this fire hoping that maybe this time it’ll have cooled down. Using the debt ceiling as power play has never worked for anyone but that won’t stop them trying by gum!

muselet

“Fire pretty.”

–alopecia

swift_4

I think Ashby has it right. Not raising the debt ceiling would be bad for Trump. He won’t do anything to hurt himself. What we would have to worry about is if an action would destroy the economy but Trump will still profit.

muselet

I don’t disagree. However, since Donald Trump doesn’t understand how economies work, I’m not sure he knows that not raising the debt ceiling would be a bad thing.